Paraesthesia: .NET Development and Some Pictures of My Cat

The Pledge Of Annoyance

I got worked up at like 6:45 this morning, which I think is a little too
early to be worked up. But I was, and it was all over the Pledge of
Allegiance.

Apparently, there’s this guy in California who wants to ban the “one
nation under God” part from the Pledge. He’s taking it to the Supreme
Court, who has agreed
to hear the case.

I have a problem with this.

I understand the guy’s an
atheist. I
understand that he feels we need to be tolerant of other religions in
the country and so on. Fine, whatever. Here’s how I see it:

The United States of America was founded by Christian people fleeing
from their country so they could practice their religion of choice. They
decided that “separation of church and state” would be in the
Constitution because they didn’t want the government to tell them what
to believe in. I agree with that wholeheartedly, and I don’t think the
government today should have any say in your religion.

That said, let’s look around the world. Last I checked, if you head
over to Asia, you’re going to see lots of Buddhist temples and things of
that nature. Are you offended by that if you’re not Buddhist? Nope.
That’s part of their culture. Head over to India - I’m sure you’ll see
all sorts of temples and things surrounding the Hindu religion.
Offended? Nope - part of the culture.

Now let’s think about the culture of the US. Didn’t take long, did it?
Because we haven’t fucking got any culture. We’re all so busy fighting
to make each other accept every import culture around here that we
haven’t developed an individual culture of our own. (Being self-centered
tourists isn’t a culture, folks.)

It’s pretty apparent to me that religion is a part of any country’s
culture. You really can’t have the one without the other, even if it’s
not pushed by the government. The Pledge of Allegiance is one part of
the miniscule culture the US has. The “one nation under God” is part of
that, and it has been ever since they decided it would be a good
addition in 1954. Should we take it out so we can be ultra-tolerant of
everyone else’s religion? No. What’s the next step? Redo all of the
money because it has “In God We Trust” on it? What about other
countries? Should Canada take out the “God keep our land glorious and
free” part of their national anthem? When does common sense kick in
around here?

What really kills me is that it’s not even a denominational “God” -
it’s not “one nation under the Christian God” or anything. Which, thus,
implies that atheism, as it stands, is a religion - the belief that
there is no god - and this guy is trying to push his religion through
the government. Isn’t that just as bad?

It’s my opinion that it’s about time to start allowing the US to have a
culture of its own. It’s my opinion that it’s about time to stop
attempting to accommodate for everyone’s feelings and just go with the
majority vote - it’s a democracy here, not a consensus. If you don’t
like how the US runs things, move out. Let’s wise up a little and stop
this nonsense.